Saturday, June 15, 2019

Wow, From NYT: Are the Oman Tanker Attacks Another Gulf of Tonkin?

The New York Times has published an op-ed by Eliot Higgin, the founder and managing editor of the investigative group, BellingCat, that questions the US narrative that Iran was behind the recent attacks of two ships in the Gulf of Oman.

There has been considerable cynicism worldwide about American claims that the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday were conducted by Iran.

Iran has denied the accusation, and on Twitter, the term “Gulf of Tonkin” trended alongside the “Gulf of Oman.”

That historical reference is telling. It was in citing the “Gulf of Tonkin incident” — the North Vietnamese were accused of attacking American destroyers in that gulf in 1964 — that President Lyndon B. Johnson persuaded the Congress to authorize greater American military involvement in Vietnam. Historians have concluded that the attack never happened and Johnson’s ploy is now seen as the quintessential false flag operation...

Could the Gulf of Oman attack be the 21st century version of the Gulf of Tonkin incident?...

While we cannot be sure whether this is a Gulf of Tonkin-style incident, we can say for certain this is not the slam-dunk evidence that some would like to claim it is. In the escalating conflict between the United States and Iran we have to work on all the information available, not just what one side presents.